Gender Stereotyping in the Media: Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Women on Television

Veronika Matunin and Melissa Sharron

An abundance of research has indicated that the media have traditionally portrayed men and women in heavily gender stereotyped roles. Many factors have contributed to the under representation of women in the media especially on television, and specifically in music videos. Historically, women in the media were more likely to play minor roles, and hold behind the scenes job titles that under characterize their abilities. Research in the 1990’s continued to under represent women in music videos. The purpose of this research was to clarify the representative role of men and women as they are portrayed in music videos for the year 2003. Based on historical representation, it was assumed that women and men’s roles may have changed little in recent years. Therefore, it was predicted that the typical gender stereotyped roles that women usually have portrayed in the last two decades would also dominate the most recent videos of 2003. A sample of 23 top hit videos was coded by two independent coders to examine the presence of prevailing gender stereotypes. Preliminary results yielded similar findings to those of the late 1990’s. Issues relating to the influence of music on prevailing stereotypes are documented.